Jay Leno drives the McLaren P1 on track — and buys the first one

Motoramic

jhyde1September 3, 2013

It's not normally news when a car shopper takes a new model for a test drive. But when the buyer is Jay Leno, the car is the 903-hp McLaren P1 and the test drive around the Top Gear track is the first time someone outside of McLaren has taken the wheel, the results are worth watching.

Shot like a BBC Top Gear episode — down to the slight vignette effect and camera angles of the Dunsfold track shots — this episode of Leno's YouTube series might be as notable for Leno dressing up for a visit to McLaren's famously spotless factory as it is for the car itself. As an owner of both a McLaren MP4-12C and the famed F1, Leno clearly has an inside line to being the first buyer of the $1 million P1, and while he's not the most neutral party to evaluate the car, he clearly enjoys the time on track. Whether the P1 can surpass not just its own expectations but the gantlet of the upcoming LaFerrari and Porsche 918 is a question for another day: